Church of Scotland

The Church of Scotland is the national church of Scotland, adhering to the Presbyterian tradition. It was principally shaped by the Protestant Reformation in 1560, and, in 1572, the young King James VI of Scotland ratified the Reformation Settlement, which abolished papal jurisdiction. King James was opposed to Presbyterianism, however, arguing that no bishop meant no king; he reintroduced episcopacy to the church, and the House of Stuart enforced the episcopacy for years. In 1638, the Church was re-established on a Presbyterian basis after a large number of Scots signed the National Covenant, leading to King Charles I of England resisting these reforms and, as a result, the outbreak of the Bishops' Wars. Episcopacy was returned to Scotland after the restoration of the Stuarts in 1660, but the Scots Parliament returned the church to Presbyterianism in 1690, leading to the split of the Scottish Episcopal Church. By 2016, it had 1.3 million adherents in 1,329 congregations.